Chaos for passengers as Qantas takes on engineers’ union

A Report in The Australian says that Qantas will try to bypass striking union engineers by permanently increasing the amount of critical maintenance work done overseas, in a move that threatens to inflame the dispute disrupting the nation’s airports.

As airline passengers prepared for more turmoil today after more than 20 flights were cancelled yesterday, Qantas said it planned to have overseas engineers in the US and London permanently conduct maintenance work on its fleet, reducing work available for Australian engineers.

After the engineers’ union threatened more disruption after today in support of its 5 per cent pay claim, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon revealed American engineers at Los Angeles International Airport had completed two full maintenance inspections – known as A-checks – on Qantas jets in the past 10 days.

Mr Dixon told The Australian that it was the first time that full inspections had been completed in Los Angeles and the airline was planning more full A-checks in other major cities – believed to include London – where Qantas jets had major downtime.

Qantas also hoped to increasingly use engineers based at Avalon in Melbourne, who are not part of the current dispute, to undertake maintenance inspections.

“I will confirm that we are now doing A-checks in Avalon and LAX ( Los Angeles ) and we are looking at other options,” Mr Dixon said.

As well as using overseas ports to work on its international fleet, Qantas again yesterday brought in a team of non-union management engineers to work on domestic planes.

In a letter to staff yesterday, Mr Dixon said the Qantas board had met in New York last week and urged executives to hold the line against the “untimely” demands of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.

The union’s rolling stoppages forced disruption to more than 20 domestic and international flights yesterday, with at least a further 18 flights to be affected today when action is taken in Brisbane and Perth.

The association’s federal president, Paul Cousins, said the union would consider more stoppages if Qantas did not shift from its offer of a 3 per cent pay rise.

Mr Dixon told staff the industrial action would affect passengers and “only adds to the pressure to restructure Qantas in the face of the soaring fuel costs that have changed the industry forever”.

International airlines, including Qantas and its Australian rival Virgin Blue, have been forced to review their operations to cope with soaring aviation fuel costs as the global oil price passes $US130 a barrel. Qantas, which says its fuel bill will rise by $2 billion in the coming year, and Virgin Blue have increased ticket prices and cut back some routes to offset the higher costs.

Company sources said the increasing use of Los Angeles airport was designed to “send a shot across the bows” of the union.

“We’ve done partial A-checks (at Los Angeles) before but we’ve never geared up to do full A-checks, which means they will no longer be done in Australia, it will be permanent,” one company source said.

“If we can get it done elsewhere, it obviously means it is less work for their members.”

Another source said Qantas was committed to sending more work offshore and, where necessary, bringing in foreign labour, while the union continued to take action.

But Mr Dixon again ruled out trying to replace the workforce en masse, in a repeat of the tactics used by Patrick Corporation’s Chris Corrigan in the 1998 waterfront dispute.

“There is no suggestion we’re here to do a Patricks,” he said. “We’re not geared to do it and we have never tried to be geared to do it.”

The union has attacked the company for refusing to shift on its 3 per cent offer.

It says the company has the capacity to lift its wage offer, given the significant profit it will record this financial year.

But Mr Dixon said the airline would not back down.

“We have had what I regard as a very sophisticated and fair wages policy. We are not going to change it now, particularly not in the current environment,” he said. “You just couldn’t contemplate our wages policy changing when we are being hit with such a huge increase in the price of oil.”

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said he was unimpressed by Qantas threatening to move maintenance offshore, saying it contradicted the airline’s previous claim that it wanted to keep as much maintenance work in Australia as possible.

“They need to establish their bona fides for that,” Mr Lawrence said.

“I think the ALAEA members are key people for Qantas. They are some of their most highly trained, skilled people. They’re essential for the operation of the airline and I think they’re entitled to be treated with respect.

“Some of these issues are raised from time to time but I have got no reason to believe that Qantas are not interested in continuing to have maintenance done in Australia .

“We are still talking to them about increased capacity for maintenance of some of the newer aircraft in Australia .

“There needs to be a realistic position taken. The fact is, given the shortages of licensed aircraft engineers around the world, that’s not going to be a solution to Qantas’s business.”

Mr Lawrence urged Qantas to resume negotiations with the engineers, claiming the company’s strong profits should allow it to offer more than a 3 per cent pay rise.

“I think there is the potential for a settlement there and when you look at the profits that Qantas have been making and the (wage) settlements that have been around the place in a number of industries, a 3 per cent wages policy is unrealistic,” he said. “I can therefore understand that the ALAEA isn’t prepared to settle for that.”

He said he did not know if the union would shift ground on its 5 per cent pay rise demand.

“I think what we need to do is explore options,” he said.

“The union never said they’re not prepared to sit down and talk about options and ways in which it can be achieved. But, at the moment, the last discussion that was had, there was a pretty substantial gap there.”

A Report by The Mole from The Australian